BEE AND BLOSSOM 137 



and warm in winter, of shielding them from enemies, of 

 regulating their internal economy, their swarming and 

 queen-rearing and the rest, and of mending their many 

 maladies ? Many more of us desire bees than desire to 

 keep them. 



Now, it is a pretty habit in Yorkshire, and, indeed, in 

 many parts of Scotland, to help the bees in their migra 

 tions. We move them, like the Vicar of Wakefield, 

 &quot; from the brown bed to the blue.&quot; When the heather 

 blooms the hives are taken to the hillsides it may be to 

 the far side of a loch and set down where the flower is 

 thickest. Bees, no doubt, will travel far. In the ordinary 

 way, when the trail of scent is hot and seductive, they 

 will make a point (as foxhunters dealing with an animal 

 of a more fallible sense of smell) of at least a mile and a 

 half. Yet the eager working bee is too keen on the 

 scent ; when the journey is so long and the attraction so 

 great they will wear their wings to shreds and die of the 

 exertion within a few weeks. That is not a fate we wish 

 for our benefactors. Hence the Scottish and Yorkshire 

 custom. Is there any reason why the same habit should 

 not be observed in apple orchards ? It is not common, 

 but it has begun ; and promises well. Here and there a 

 Worcestershire orchard owner, who has, perhaps, drawn 

 his inspiration from farther north, offers the bee-keepers 

 the hospitality of his orchards for the season of the 

 blossoming ; and the offer is welcomed. 



The honey flow is a pretty technical phase ; and is 

 almost as distinct a thing as the swarming ; and the best 

 and earliest is the flow that comes with the opening of 

 the apples, when we hope to see the backs of the Three 

 Icemen, and the new warmth adds vigour to the young 

 bees just coming to their prime. A passion for honey 

 enters the hive with the sweet scent of the blossom, 



